The end of the school year is approaching, and summer will be here before we know it. I've always found it to be a little harder to stay motivated to practice during the warmer weather; even though there's more free time at your disposal, there are so many fun outdoor activities that can only be enjoyed in the summer months that can tempt you away from the music stand.

Having a project or a goal is a good way to keep your practice momentum; why not try a sight reading challenge? Choose a short piece to sight read each day for a month, and use the 30-day graph from Musician's Way to rate the following:

1.) How difficult the piece looks like it will be to sight read2.) How well you did on the sight reading

Use two different colors to mark difficulty and level of success. For example, you might use a red dot to signify how hard the piece looks on a scale of 1-5, and a green dot to indicate how well you played it. Each day will have two dots. You might be surprised to see how well you do at even the most difficult sight reading after a solid month of practice!

Click the image below to download the graph from Musician's Way:

If you don't have a lot of sheet music at your disposal, try using the "Tune of the Day" from FluteTunes to find something new to play every day; they post a different featured piece of free sheet music each day, so it's a great resource for a project like the Summer Sight Reading Challenge. Best of luck, and happy sight reading!